Holden's call center in La Junta is reasonably well-managed. They have or had a fairly good benefits package, including the new Health Savings Accounts. They work extremely hard to balance the needs of the call center's clients with the personal needs of employees (for unexpected time off, for example). If obliged to lay off employees due to the seasonal nature of some of the work, they try to hire people back as soon as possible. When they do this, the rehires are not required to go through new employee benefit waiting periods, or those periods are reduced.

Cons

Money is apparently not available to replace or repair some pieces of equipment necessary to accomplish job tasks. In a call center, these pieces of equipment include headsets and amplifiers. Employees whose equipment stops functioning are routinely told to move to another cubicle -- if they can find one where the equipment is in working order. The initial eligibility for benefits, particularly paid leave, is handled in a very unusual manner which is not clearly explained to new employees -- specifically, it results in employees not receiving their full allotment of 80 hours paid leave per year until two full years have been worked, in spite of being told that they are eligible to receive the 80 hours after less than one year of employment. Employees are told that call content and performance will be monitored and scored for quality, which is usual at a call center, but are not told that normal conversations with other employees, containing nothing in violation of Holden's rules for on-site behavior, will be monitored informally and the results used to affect an employee's performance reviews.

Advice to Management

A lot more communication is needed about what is expected of employees -- not just the employee handbook, or the information provided in the training sessions. Anything at the workplace which might affect an employee's ability to do the job, or to get a good performance review, which is not already included in the written materials provided, should be accurately conveyed to the employee up front.

If you are in to using antiquated technology, this is the company for you. Other than that, there isn't a good thing about this place.

Cons

This is small family run company. No matter how much you are willing to give, they want more. Poor benefits and paid holidays even though you are expected to work most of them. Technology is old and severly out dated. All in all everything about this place is a downside. Very stressful place to work. A joke!!!

Advice to Management

Sell the company to someone who wants to run it as a company instead of a cash cow.

Middle management in some departments is very good, although turnover of this same management is high. Given that many tasks can fall through the cracks, it is relatively easy to take things over and ensure the work is done without fighting over territory. In other words, help is appreciated in most areas.

Cons

The IT department is the Achilles heel of this arm of the company and they are firmly entrenched. Expect to loose clients due to poor support from IT and endless hand-wringing and excuses about providing the bare minimum of client services. The owner of the company paid for a rather crude personality test that he scores himself from afar. You'll not find it in any actual testing service, for it totally relies on the perceptions of single words rather than statements. In short, it looks like it came out of a hack seminar. But it will derail your promotions as sure as an oncoming freight train.

Advice to Management

Stop making your ridiculously un-scientific psychological test a condition of all management positions. It's insulting to the intelligence of your employees and drives them away.